The Principal Project Manager drives the delivery of EGA’s most critical, high-impact, and cross-functional technology projects. This role requires advanced stakeholder management, strategic foresight, and proven experience leading large digital service implementations. The Principal Project Manager ensures complex initiatives (such as multi-department platforms or infrastructure modernization) are executed effectively, and in accordance with EGA’s strategic roadmap and governance frameworks.

The role works in close partnership with Engagement Managers, who serve as the primary interface with government departments, ensuring that project delivery is tightly aligned with stakeholder expectations as conveyed through EMs.

In addition to leading end-to-end execution, the Principal Project Manager is fully accountable for managing project scope, cost, schedule, and quality to ensure outcomes are delivered within approved parameters. The role demands a high degree of coordination across internal teams, government departments, and third-party partners, with clear responsibility for ensuring that projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to defined quality standards.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Project Management

• Lead high-stakes, high-complexity technology projects with cross-government impact, including digital platforms, ERP transformations, and large-scale citizen-facing services.
• Collaborate with Engagement Managers to validate departmental needs, refine project charters, and ensure alignment between department expectations and delivery scope.
• Ensure project delivery within approved scope, cost, schedule, and quality thresholds, using appropriate controls and performance management practices.
• Apply and tailor delivery methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid) to fit project context, organizational maturity, and stakeholder needs.
• Provide strategic insight and hands-on oversight to align project outcomes with EGA’s digital transformation roadmap and service delivery objectives.
• Collaborate with the EPMO to align project execution with governance expectations and to contribute tactical feedback that informs the evolution of project management frameworks, tools, and standards.
• Coordinate cross-functional workstreams and interdependent efforts across internal teams, vendors, and external government entities to maintain program-level alignment.
• Anticipate and proactively manage complexity, ambiguity, and change across project phases, ensuring stability while adapting to evolving requirements and priorities.

Stakeholder and Executive Engagement

• Build and maintain strong, trust-based relationships with senior stakeholders across EGA and other Ras Al Khaimah government departments to ensure shared ownership of project objectives and outcomes.
• Represent EGA in strategic governance forums, steering committees, and interdepartmental meetings to drive alignment, secure decisions, and resolve escalated issues.
• Facilitate transparent, proactive communication with executive sponsors and senior leadership, providing concise updates on project health, risks, and decision points.
• Work closely with Engagement Managers (who serve as primary liaisons with departments) to ensure stakeholder expectations are accurately translated into delivery outcomes and managed throughout the project lifecycle.
• Manage expectations effectively across diverse stakeholder groups, ensuring that priorities are reconciled and changes are communicated with clarity and speed.
• Provide delivery-level input and visibility to Engagement Managers for departmental updates, risk escalations, and prioritization discussions, ensuring consistent alignment between execution and stakeholder direction.
• Guide stakeholders through the transition from legacy processes or platforms to new systems, ensuring buy-in, readiness, and support throughout the change process.

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

• Ensure full compliance with EGA’s IT governance frameworks, procurement regulations, cybersecurity mandates, and digital service standards throughout the project lifecycle.
• Maintain and actively manage a comprehensive risk register, identifying high-impact risks early and implementing mitigation strategies in collaboration with stakeholders and vendors.
• Establish and enforce robust change control processes to manage scope and minimize disruptions, ensuring traceability and accountability for all modifications.
• Support internal and external audits by ensuring that documentation, reporting, and controls meet required standards and can withstand scrutiny.
• Partner with the EPMO and relevant assurance functions to ensure projects remain aligned with strategic priorities, reporting obligations, and performance KPIs.
• Monitor and escalate compliance risks, policy deviations, or unresolved blockers with structured analysis and clear decision pathways for executive resolution.

Vendor Oversight and Partnership Management

• Lead oversight of multiple delivery partners and vendors contributing to the same project, ensuring clarity of roles, aligned timelines, and coordinated execution.
• Establish and maintain delivery governance structures with third parties, including escalation protocols, performance reviews, and contractual compliance checkpoints.
• Drive effective collaboration across diverse vendor teams, resolving integration issues, conflicting priorities, or delivery delays through structured and proactive engagement.
• Evaluate vendor performance against agreed service levels and deliverables, intervening early to address underperformance or contractual deviations.
• Support procurement teams in vendor onboarding and scoping to ensure that roles, responsibilities, and dependencies are clearly defined from the outset.
• Facilitate alignment between internal teams and external partners to ensure technical and operational integration across all delivery components.

Project Closure, Optimization, and Knowledge Transfer

• Lead formal project closure processes, ensuring all contractual deliverables, acceptance criteria, and documentation are completed and signed off.
• Conduct comprehensive post-implementation reviews to assess project performance against objectives and to identify lessons learned for future initiatives.
• Share delivery outcomes and post-project learnings with Engagement Managers to refine future service planning and pipeline development.
• Drive benefit realization analysis and ensure alignment of delivered outcomes with expected business value and strategic goals.
• Oversee transition to operations, ensuring that support teams receive full documentation, training, and technical knowledge required for sustainable service delivery.
• Capture and share best practices, challenges, and insights to contribute to continuous improvement of EGA’s project delivery methodologies.
• Where applicable, recommend optimizations or follow-on initiatives based on project outcomes, stakeholder feedback, or newly uncovered opportunities.
• Collaborate with Engagement Managers to communicate closure outcomes and lessons learned to departmental stakeholders, supporting future project planning, pipeline refinement, and strategic alignment.

Educational and Professional Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field (Master’s degree preferred)
• PMP Certification or equivalent strongly desired
• PMI-ACP or Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) required or SAFe certification (e.g., SAFe Agilist or SAFe Program Consultant) strongly desired
• Additional certifications in program management, risk management, or IT governance (e.g., PgMP, MoP, COBIT, or ITIL) are advantageous

Experience

• Minimum 10 years of progressive experience in project management of complex technology programs
• Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale Agile or hybrid delivery programs in complex stakeholder environments
• Experience in mentoring or guiding Agile delivery teams, Scrum Masters, or Product Owners, particularly in organizations transitioning from traditional delivery models
• Proven track record delivering high-impact, multi-stakeholder, and cross-functional projects in government or highly regulated environments
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple vendors and delivery partners within a single initiative
• Familiarity with public-sector platforms and enterprise ecosystems such as SAP S/4 HANA, SAP BTP, cloud infrastructure, and citizen-facing digital services
• Experience contributing to the development or refinement of project governance frameworks, ideally in coordination with a central PMO or EPMO

Skills

• Exceptional project leadership and stakeholder engagement capabilities, including executive communication and influence
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills, with a structured approach to problem-solving in complex and ambiguous settings
• Deep understanding of delivery risk management, compliance, and change control in large-scale IT environments
• Advanced ability to align delivery execution with organizational strategy and benefit realization goals
• Skilled in using project and portfolio management tools (e.g., MS Project, Jira, Smartsheet, or Clarity PPM)
• Demonstrated ability to work in matrixed models, collaborating across engagement and delivery roles.
• Experience translating stakeholder needs (as communicated by engagement leads) into delivery roadmaps.

Language Requirements:

• English (written and spoken): Essential
• Arabic (written and spoken): Preferred